


The Radio Demon’s Little Darling

by songbirdly



Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: Alastor Has a Heart (Hazbin Hotel), Canon Compliant, Character Study, Cinnamon Roll Charlie Magne, Developing Friendships, First Meetings, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Niffty is Precious (Hazbin Hotel), Non-Graphic Violence, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:28:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28243164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/songbirdly/pseuds/songbirdly
Summary: Niffty had always trusted Alastor, from the moment he first gave her a soft smile. She was his friend, and her friends were his friends. Years later, at a strange hotel, she finds herself making a new friend of her own.
Relationships: Alastor & Niffty (Hazbin Hotel), Charlie Magne & Niffty, Niffty (Hazbin Hotel) & Everyone
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34





	The Radio Demon’s Little Darling

**Author's Note:**

> Alternative Title: Niffty Discovers Emotions
> 
> There’s hardly any fics from Niffty’s perspective, and she’s such a fun character so I had to remedy that! I tried to keep her hyper, fast-thinking personality while giving her a bit more.... depth, I guess. Also the Charlie/Niffty friendship is underrated. Niffty in general is underrated.
> 
> Please note that there is some lightly described Alastor-esque brutal violence, but it’s so non-graphic that I figured it didn’t warrant a warning.
> 
> I hope you enjoy reading!!

Niffty had always trusted Alastor. From the moment he found her, covered in blood with a shiv clenched in her tiny hands, his smile had morphed into something genuine and she became attached instantly.

When she’d fallen into Hell, the pure chaos that engulfed the realm had been too much for her to handle. Too much noise, too many lights, and far too much mess. Niffty had ended up shivering in a corner somewhere, primed to strike at anyone who came near because she had been  _ so hungry. _ Alastor had easily disarmed her when she had lunged at him, tutting in amusement as he plucked the small lady off the ground. She had followed him when he promised food and clean clothes. Which, in hindsight, wasn’t the best idea, but Niffty wasn’t the sharpest and Alastor just seemed so kind! She would learn soon enough that her first impression of him may have been inaccurate when she stood by and watched him tear flesh and bone from his screaming victims. It didn’t much faze her.

She enjoyed the exhilarating feeling when she would be summoned out of the blue to put her talents to use. She enjoyed bouncing into the club where she met her best friend, listening to Mimzy sing as she danced with any handsome man she liked. She especially enjoyed when Alastor would offer his arm and lead her to his radio tower, where she would sit on his shoulders and stare down at the demon who was the subject of Alastor’s broadcast. For someone who had been walked all over in life, there was nothing Niffty craved more than the pure joy she felt when she fixed her eye upon a suffering demon, her grin just as maniacal as Alastor’s as he tore the poor soul limb from limb.

Scrubbing all the blood and crushed innards off of everything in the vicinity afterwards was always a pain, but it was a small price to pay for the overall experience. Besides, she  _ liked _ cleaning!

As far as Niffty was concerned, Alastor was a blessing in the godless land they lived in. Her life was luxurious compared to when she was among the living, and her friends! She had met many good friends through Alastor. And the clothes he would make for her, and the food he would cook, and the freedom he gave her to do as she pleased.... why, Alastor had given her  _ everything. _ Even her name.

When Alastor had first introduced her to Rosie, the intimidating, well-mannered woman had asked her who she was, and Niffty told her everything but her human name. Alastor had then remarked that Niffty was rather, well,  _nifty,_ and she had liked that word. The spelling ability between the two of them was quite poor, and it was only when Husk eventually joined their little group that Niffty was informed of the peculiar way she would sign her name. Mimzy told her it was cute though, so the double “f”s stayed.

Alastor stayed too. A nagging voice in the back of her mind whispered that he would tire of her eventually. She would lose her friends and her security. She would lose her wonderful afterlife. But as the years went by, the voice became quieter and quieter until Niffty realized that she couldn’t hear it at all. After half a century of being Alastor’s friend, Niffty was damn certain that he would  _ never _ leave her, nor would Mimzy or Husk or Rosie. Her afterlife was the bee’s knees and she wouldn’t give it up for anything.

When she was yanked out of Mimzy’s club all of a sudden to appear a moment later in some sort of run-down brothel, she wasn’t surprised. When she realized that it was Alastor who was holding her up and introducing her to a group of demons, Niffty put on her best smile, happy to be with Alastor regardless of reason. She spent most of her time there cleaning, because good gosh the place was absolutely filthy! As she zipped around, polishing furniture and killing vermin, she would catch tidbits of information from overheard conversations. The filthy building was supposed to be a hotel, not a brothel, and it was run by the princess of Hell with the goal of rehabilitating sinners and sending them to Heaven.

How peculiar! No sinner would ever be accepted by Heaven. It was common knowledge among both the living and the dead that nobody got a second chance. Alastor laughed at the idea, telling Niffty how  _very entertaining_ the whole fiasco would turn out to be. Of course, she was happy to tag along.

Niffty soon realized just how lovely the princess was, and the first patron was great fun to be around.... the angry girl was the only person Niffty tried to avoid. Mimzy was soon dragged into the place, which made Niffty ecstatic! Even Husker seemed to be getting along fine.

And the mess! The constant mess mess mess everywhere sure kept her on her toes. She was very fast at cleaning, lucky her! When she would enter a room armed with her feather-duster from seemingly out of nowhere, the surprised squeaks made by the residents elicited a giggle from her.

Yes, Niffty was having a jolly good time.

The place was most certainly different from Alastor’s usual entertainment endeavours, though. He had explained to her that he wished to see the hotel’s residents bring about their own destruction, rather than to just ruin them himself. That system meant they’d be staying for a while. The hotel was big and it was always filthy, but as time went on Niffty’s fanatic work paid off. She often had free time once no single speck of dust could be found. She filled that time with writing, cooking, pestering anyone she could find, and gossiping with Mimzy.

Even those enjoyable activities lost their charm, however, as her prolonged stay at the hotel was beginning to make her restless. Several months after her arrival she had taken to simply wandering the halls aimlessly. Why, she figured she was practically as bored as Alastor!

As she wandered the halls, exploring the place and taking in every dusted photograph and painting, running her hand along the old exquisite wallpaper, she began to come across situations that normally would have breezed past her. One day, she came across the princess crying.

Now, the princess often cried. She cried when she was happy and she cried when she was sad. She cried when she was ridiculed on the news and when she saw a particularly cute small animal. However, she never cried when she fought with Alastor, or when she worried over Angel coming back late covered in bruises, or when her girlfriend exploded at something small due to stress, or that one time when Husker drank himself into a coma, or when Alastor sauntered into the hotel carrying his own severed arm after a fight, or when Angel and his friend demolished another hotel room “accidentally”, or.... she never cried when she was worried about someone else. She often cried afterwards hidden in a corner, sure, but never in the moment as she fretted over what to do, what to do.

Niffty was beginning to realize just how much Charlie  _cared_ about others. She cared enough to put her own feelings after them and focus on fixing a bad situation. Unfortunately, her way of fixing things was to let her feelings overtake logic and make the decisions. This created a weird sort of catch-22.

The Charlie way of doing things resulted in a lot of weirdness.

Like just then, when Niffty found her slumped over and crying in a hallway. The Charlie-crying-in-a-hallway part wasn’t anything new, as Niffty had whizzed past that same view many times. The strange part was that Niffty had been in the hotel lobby just minutes ago, and everything had seemed very normal. Angel was bothering Husker at the bar, Vaggie was running up and down the stairs with an ever-changing amount of paperwork in her arms, Alastor was playing cards with his shadow, Mimzy was out performing for the night, that weird fish boy was likely holed up in his basement laboratory, and a smattering of other patrons were milling around the bar and the game room. Nothing out of the ordinary. So why the princess was crying now stumped Niffty, and she stopped walking to set her big eye on Charlie.

“Are you alright, Miss Charlie?”

The princess sniffled and raised her head off of her knees, tears rolling down her lovely red cheeks. She didn’t look at Niffty. Odd.

“Yes.... well,  _ no, _ not really, but don’t—“ she sniffed, “don’t worry about it.”

Niffty crooked her head to the side. She was inclined to ignore the princess and carry on with trudging through the halls, but Alastor had mentioned once that a “peculiar situation was a promising vessel for entertainment”. Niffty wasn’t entirely sure what he had meant, but she was bored and some entertainment sounded nice! Maybe she should stick around.

She gave Charlie a toothy grin. “Why, Miss Charlie, I can’t leave you here in distress! Is it Miss Angel’s fault? Did he break something again? Is Alastor too scary?  _Am I too scary?_ Your girlfriend is pretty scary, you know—“

Charlie finally turned her head and stared as Niffty continued rambling.

“— and Husker was mean to you earlier although he’s always kinda mean, is that the problem? I think he drinks too much, wouldn’t you agree? I can’t drink that much, I’m too small! I—“

“Niffty!” Charlie looked slightly scared now. “I’m fine, really, I just....”

How peculiar! Now silent, Charlie was biting her lip and fumbling with the hem of her shirt. Niffty didn’t understand why she did that, talking was easy! Niffty could talk on and on, so maybe she should keep at it.

Charlie sniffled again, and some strange feeling befell the small girl watching her. She could ramble, or she could walk away, but Charlie was upset and that made Niffty feel.... bad. She wanted to cheer Charlie up, but she didn’t know how. She wasn’t good at helping people when they were sad. She could never help Husker, she was always just.... there. For once, Niffty couldn’t speak. She had nothing to say.

She realized what the strange feeling was as Charlie wiped her eyes and gave her a wobbly smile. Charlie was the one crying, but she was trying to reassure  _ Niffty? _ Niffty felt guilty. Guilty because Charlie shouldn’t have to pull herself together for Niffty’s sake. She didn’t like feeling guilty.

“Miss Charlie....” She would choose her words carefully this time. “Is there.... anything I can do?”

Charlie seemed taken aback. Her pretty eyes widened and blinked the tears away. The two girls were silent in the hallway, distant conversations echoing off the walls. Niffty felt very out of place with Charlie’s full attention on her.

“Could I join you, on your walk? It’s lonely up here.”

Niffty brightened instantly, her smile huge and infectious as Charlie’s own smile grew more genuine.

“Of course Miss Charlie! Some company would be _wonderful!”_

Charlie stood, and Niffty grabbed her hand and towed her along. She skipped happily, fixing crooked picture frames with her spare hand. Charlie stumbled to keep up, but Niffty could practically feel her smiling. Niffty looked back and sure enough, the princess wore her glowing smile like something precious. It wasn’t like Alastor’s normal sharp grin, or Angel’s suggestive smirk, or even Charlie’s peppy automatic smile that she wore when she was trying desperately to keep morale up in her failing hotel.

Niffty liked this current smile. It reminded her of the soft, tired smiles Vaggie would give her when she helped clean up after a long day, and Husker’s brilliant grin on those rare occasions where he was truly happy, and Mimzy’s adoring expression when Niffty would loudly cheer for her after a stunning performance.

Charlie’s bright but cautious voice brought her out of her thoughts.

“Niffty, do you think that anyone here could ever be redeemed?”

“Well.... Mister Al thinks you’re nuts but you care so much, I bet you’ll send someone to Heaven eventually!”

“Would you like to go to Heaven?”

“.... I never considered that I could. Maybe, Miss Charlie.”

**Author's Note:**

> Aaaand thank you!! Comments are always appreciated :)


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